I need to learn how to clean an animal after killing it. Also more medical stuff. I probably should become more proficient at reloading.....
Better learn what I can and can't eat.
I'll try to remember to take pictures or video at deer camp. For small game it's pretty simple, you pull out the guts then take off the skin. For deer it's a bit more complicated if you don't want to contaminate the meat. You don't want fecal natter, urine or the organ fluids (like from the prostate gland) to touch the meat. Fecal matter is swarming with bacteria.
A doe is much easier to properly clean than a buck. The biggest problem is getting the bladder out without breaking it. I use a small zip tie to tie off the top of the bladder, then cut above the zip tie.
There are three basic ways to skin a deer. Head up, head down, and on the ground. I carry a block and tackle with me hunting so I never have to skin a deer on the ground. If it will be hours before you can get the deer to a skinning rack, you want to field dress it, which is simply cutting open the abdomen and removing the intestines and stomach. Since the hide protects the meat from contamination, you don't have to be as careful.
We weigh the deer at the skinning rack and record the live weight, so we don't field dress our deer, we just get them to the skinning rack ASAP.
With the head down method, you use a gambrel to spread the hind legs and support the weight of the deer while cleaning it. A gambrel looks like a heavy duty coat hanger with hooks on each side that go through slits cut behind the deer's Achilles tendons. We use one that is made from a 2x4 and heavy duty screw hooks.
With the head up method, the deer is often strung up by the antlers.
Butchering is really the hard part with a deer. The way I do it is basically to separate the muscles. It's a lot of work, but results in a lot more good meat than just hacking up the deer.
Each muscle is vacuum packed, unless it is too large, like the backstraps, in which case it is cut in half before vacuum packing.
I leave some fat on for freezing to protect the meat, but when I thaw the meat, everything that is not RED meat is trimmed off. No matter how careful you are, there will be some surface meat that is brown. CUT IT OFF AND THROW IT AWAY!!!! Not only does the brown meat smell bad and taste bad, it may have E Coli bacteria. KEEP YOUR KNIFE CLEAN!!!
If you do it right, the meat you are left with after trimming should look and smell like freshly bought beef steak. If a buck was killed during the rut, or had been running before being shot, there will be a sour smell from lactic acid build up. The meat is still good, but requires plenty of spices like garlic to offset the sour taste.